Are you an expert? Do people in your company or industry seek your expertise or advice? Do you have a situation in which people come to you expecting you to have every answer to every question about every aspect of your business? Is it even possible to hope to be an expert in a world that is changing so fast?
I think owners of businesses of all sizes can find this challenge frustrating. It is nice to be an authority figure. However, I have seen in my recent experience that my industry has changed so fast that I have given up any notion of ever being an expert or even very knowledgeable in some areas.
In many ways, our expertise needs to be rebuilt or replaced based on how we need to understand technology, finance, marketing or other fields because they have been transformed. This concept started to intrigue me when my own company began exploring a new and relatively undefined market in Lifelong Learning. It raised the question of how entrepreneurs and leaders can build expertise today.
Corporate leaders tend to have developed a large amount of expertise in certain domains and in their industry by the time they reach the top. Young and talented corporate leaders tend to get fast-tracked in developing new expertise.
Leaders in family-owned businesses or public organisations benefit from a large amount of inherited expertise, as well as good personal connections. But how can a new business founder, owner, or small business owner access and grow expertise today?
Unsurprisingly, access to experts remains effective. I am fortunate to have worked with many experts, from university professors to brilliant businesspeople and thinkers. I realise how lucky I have been. I also have some great experts in my own company, as is the case for bigger businesses, but smaller companies may not have. These experts have deep domain expertise in important but singular areas.
We live in a world where some people denigrate the importance and effectiveness of existing expertise. The famous artist Kanye West recently commented that he would not even listen to people older than himself. While I do not agree with Mr West, I understand that there are a lot of new areas of expertise I am not aware of, and I probably will need to know. It made me reflect that my mindset must be that I will never ever finish developing my own “expertise”.
Expertise will always be a work in progress. That degree, executive education certificate, online course, or TikTok video you watched is just going to be the latest step in your journey. Here are some ideas based on what I have learned works for leaders I interact with. I believe leaders of any organisation can use them:
Benefit from the wisdom of a crowd. A number of years ago, I conducted some original research with an expert I admire very much. Professor Bruce McKenzie and I used an unusual approach to access insights, but it proved the power of many minds supporting each other. Since then, I have seen the power of community in building and sharing expertise and have become a firm believer.
Leaders learn best from leaders. Today our environment is dramatically different from just two years ago. Access to a community is more important than ever. It is the fastest way to get out of your old ways of doing things and develop additional expertise that is really new.
Embrace “I don’t know”. When everyone is coming to you with questions or for approval of everything, it can be frustrating. It is also counterproductive for the organisation in the long run as it encourages additional steps that may slow down progress.
Saying “I don’t know” means your people need to go out and develop their expertise independently (which they can then share with you). It also shows you your own blind spots and makes you curious to identify the expertise you need to add. In today’s world, the feeling that you need to constantly project expertise is a barrier to getting better.
Read/consume information more generally. We live in an increasingly connected world, and the definition of what constitutes expertise has shifted. Reading is not as popular these days as it once was, but the benefits of consuming new ideas and information are proven.
More and more innovation these days is happening at the edges and intersections. Companies like Haier are doing amazing things by bridging these expertise sets with open innovation. The more a founder, leader or entrepreneur understands, the more opportunities become available. I love to read, but I find myself listening to podcasts, reading summaries, and benefitting from even short-form consumption of new information and knowledge.
Try something new. There are many approaches to learning but doing is perhaps the surest way to develop expertise in something new. I understand leaders are busy people planning the future and steering the ship. But sometimes you have to get hands-on, especially if you want to be confident in helping others.
For example, I wanted to introduce and practise new types of social learning in my business. It was a very vague concept with little in the way of good practices at the time. I knew what I wanted to provide, but when I bit the bullet and started experimenting, I solidified my ideas and built new expertise. I couldn’t articulate what I wanted until I’d done it. I couldn’t advise until I had experienced it.
To a large extent, how to develop expertise is the same for all of us. Technology provides shortcuts to access ideas and information anywhere, on almost any subject, but other people and getting out and trying are the best ways to develop new expertise today.
Arinya Talerngsri is Chief Capability Officer and Managing Director at SEAC — Southeast Asia’s Lifelong Learning Center. She can be reached by email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa
